


Small Comforts

by schrijverr



Series: Mechtober 2020 [2]
Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mechtober 2020, Nightmares, Soft Jonny d'Ville, mostly comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:09:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26803429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schrijverr/pseuds/schrijverr
Summary: Octokittens & FamilyJonny makes friends with a bunch of octokittens after they help him with his nightmares and runs into Ashes late at night while he’s feeding them in secret.
Relationships: Jonny d'Ville & The Octokittens
Series: Mechtober 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946104
Comments: 8
Kudos: 77





	Small Comforts

**Author's Note:**

> You can also find this work on tumblr, which is @schrijverr as well. Hope you pop in and say hi, cause I'd love to talk to y'all!

Jonny couldn’t remember where or when the octokittens came into his life aboard the Aurora, just that one day they were there and they were assholes.

The eight-legged monsters would always trip him up and scream at him in the middle of the night, waking him in the process, which was just rude, only for him to find out that they were merely hungry and wanted him to feed them.

He didn’t want to feed the bastards, he knew the others spoiled them enough and he didn’t know why they’d thought they could trick him into feeding them again, especially after waking him up in the middle of the goddamn night. 

He just wanted to sleep.

Whenever he grumbled about the little shits to the others he only got laughed at or they told him to be nice, which was rich coming from people like Tim and Ashes, the fuckers.

But then one night it shifted. He was violently awoken from his sleep once more by a loud octokitten yell in his ear, but this time he couldn’t be more relived. 

He’d been dreaming, no dreaming was the wrong word, he’d been having a nightmare. Everything went to shit and he couldn’t stop it, he was all alone again with no family to cling to and it had been terrible.

The little head butting his hand was a welcome comfort and he let his fingers slide through the fur as he tried to calm his breathing down to match the stupid monotone pace his metal heart was beating at.

He could feel the beast purring under him and it was easy to forget the nightmare when he listened to the little content sounds and felt the vibrations under his palm.

Once he felt as human as he got these days, he swung his legs over the side of the bed as he carefully balanced the octokitten that was always there in his arms, he knew it was the same bastard that had woken him up every time, since it was completely pink after an experiment of Raphaella had gone wrong. 

Or right, who knew with her.

Jonny knew he had too much pride to go and wake any of the others for comfort, god knew he couldn’t even ask for it during the day when he wouldn’t be disrupting them, but the pink abomination in his arms was good enough.

He carried it to the kitchen, a dozen of its friends on his heels and he carefully fed them all some of the meat. He knew they liked it, he’d gotten mad at them once for trying to steal it and they rarely made the effort to steal anything.

After that he and the octokittens built up a routine. He’d feed them during the night and they kept him warm while he slept and woke him up when he trashed from the nightmares.

The pink one he’d named Fucksia, cause she had kind of a fuchsia color and he liked saying fuck. He thought it was clever and Fucksia wasn’t complaining.

Then one night he was feeding the octokittens again. He was in nothing but his boxers and a big tshirt he’d stolen from Brian and he was gently scolding them: “Fucksia, you know I’m not going to skip you, I never did and I’m not starting now. Wait your turn.”

When behind him someone chuckled. 

Jonny startled and swung his head around, dropping the piece of meat in his hand. At his feet the octokittens squabbled over it while Ashes smirked at him. He swallowed and asked: “What are you doing here?”

“Could ask you the same if it weren’t so obvious. When did you grow soft for the octokittens?” they said.

Stammering for a moment, Jonny gestured aimlessly at the air, before dropping his arm and shrugging as he inspected the ground silently.

The octokittens had finished the dropped piece of meat and were meowing at him again. Ashes gaze was burning him and he didn’t want to answer them, didn’t want to admit that they gave him the comfort he craved and was too scared to ask for.

He picked Fucksia up and held her to his chest as he swallowed thickly and continued to ignore Ashes, while feeling their presence heavily around him.

Ashes looked at Jonny and barely recognized him. He seemed small, timid, unsure. They didn’t like how he’d shrunken into himself the moment they’d made themself known. 

They’d watched him for a while, before they had opened their mouth. During that time, they’d seen him smile and roll his eyes at the octokittens antics as he fed them little scraps of meat while he petted and cooed at them.

That had all dropped away when they’d chuckled at his scolding of the little furbeasts and now he was there looking like a small kid with a stuffed toy hugged to his chest.

The bright pink octokitten in his arms purred as he petted them, seemingly soothing himself just as much as the octokitten.

Realizing that they should probably say something, since it was clear Jonny wasn’t going to, they said: “It’s alright, it’s kind of adorable to see you interact with them, I was just wondering when that happened since you were grumbling about them-”

They cut themself off when they realized they hadn’t heard Jonny complain about the octokittens in a few weeks now.

“Huh.” they said, “You actually haven’t been grumbling about them.”

Jonny shrugged and weakly said: “They’re soft and warm.”

Ashes smiled at the small admission and asked: “Can I pet them and feel?”

Jonny nodded and lifted his arm to allow them to pet the octokitten while he told them: “I named her Fucksia, she can be a little shit and she screams very loudly when she’d hungry, but she vibrates nicely when you pet her and she breathes regularly so that I can follow.”

His voice petered off at the end and he went back to scratching Fucksias head while he blushed at his confession, but it had been enough for Ashes to be able to put together why Jonny had started to like the octokittens.

They silently cursed themself for making Jonny feel bad or embarrassed about seeking comfort in the little creatures. They had also struggled with comfort for a long time and had found it in scented candles, they would hate it if they though someone was laughing at that, especially someone of the crew.

“That’s really nice, Jonny.” they said, “I’m glad she’s there then.”

Jonny gave them a glance and they smiled at him. After a second Jonny smiled back, before turning back to Fucksia and feeding her a piece of meat from the counter. 

“I’ll leave you to it.” Ashes said, backing away, they thought it best not to intrude on this for Jonny, but they did want him to know one more thing before they went, so they added: “Don’t be afraid to come to me if Fucksia isn’t enough to help.”

Biting his lip Jonny was still for a moment, then he nodded and waved goodbye, before turning back to his haggle of furry friends to continue feeding them, but there was a smile playing at his lips now that he was reassured once more that he did have a family to fall back on.

Fucksia meowed again and he fondly said: “Yeah, yeah, I know, you’re enough too.”

She meowed again and with an eyeroll he told her: “I just fed you, the others go first now, okay?”

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact: Annie M.G. Schimdt, a Dutch writer, wrote a song with fuchsia pronounced as fucksia way back when people didn’t really speak English, so that all the proper people would swear when they sang her fun little song. I love her for that, what a hero. (for my fellow dutchies, _Ja zuster, nee zuster_ am I right?)
> 
> Not really family, since I loved Jonny with an octokitten-crew so much that I kind of got swept up in it, lol.
> 
> Kudos and Comments give me life, so if you leave some, thank you so much!!


End file.
